Peter the Great welcomes visitors to St. Petersburg/Patricia Leslie
I hope President Obama does not cancel his trip to St. Petersburg, Russia for the G20 over the Syria mess for after all, how can you communicate if you don't communicate?
Peter the Great (1672-1725) on his horse on a very big rock stands ready on the banks of the Neva to welcome the G20 members to St. Petersburg, truly one of the world's loveliest cities, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, the "Venice of the North" for its cultural opportunities and beautiful canals, reminiscent of the real Venice.
Peter the Great in St. Petersburg/Patricia Leslie
The revered (almost as much as Lenin, it seems) Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837) wrote the poem, The Bronze Horseman, about the statue of Peter who founded St. Petersburg in 1703. (I would include the English text of the poem, however and alas, "This text has been suppressed due to author restrictions," but it is found in Russian at http://www.rvb.ru/pushkin/01text/02poems/01poems/0795.htm?start=0&length=all.)
From a distance Peter the Great seemed smaller than expected. Beyond the statue is the Neva River and in the distance is the Menshikov Palace/Patricia Leslie
It is almost criminal to visit St. Petersburg without having read Peter the Great by Robert K. Massie published in 1981. Indeed, the Fairfax County Public Library has only three copies which are never on the shelves, always checked out and reserved, no doubt partially due to Massie's 2012 Catherine the Great, also required reading to truly enjoy the magnificence and scope of the history of Russia, its tsars, their legacies, and the possessions they left behind. And it was because of these two books, honestly, that I went to Russia. (Reading Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra was a factor, too. Forced by books. They made me do it. This has happened to me before.)
The Neva River separates Peter the Great and the Menshikov Palace (reddish roof)/Patricia Leslie
Peter the Great on the banks of the Neva River, St. Petersburg, Russia. The Russian flag flies on top of the government building across the street/Patricia Leslie
The stone on which Peter stands has its own history and is sometimes called the Thunder Stone. It was found 3.7 miles inland from the Gulf of Finland and hauled painstakingly by 400 men who laid and relaid track and worked nine months to carry it to St. Petersburg in what is still known as the largest stone moved by man without animals or machinery. The whole transfer to the statue site took two years.
Falconet worked on the project for 12 years before his inability to please the madam, exhaustion and exasperation led him to leave four years before the statue was completed. His absence at the dedication on August 7, 1782 received attention and is noted on the sign at the entrance to the park where the statue stands. Massie provides lots more detail.
About 150 years after the dedication, citizens covered Peter with sandbags and a wooden shelter to hide the statue from 900 days of Nazi attack and bombs. The monument escaped the siege undamaged.
Having a little knowledge of the statue’s background, I was mysteriously drawn to it every day while I was in St. Petersburg. It lies in close proximity to St. Isaac’s Cathedral, itself a landmark whose gilded dome can be seen for miles around town.
St. Isaac's Cathedral, St. Petersburg, Russia/Patricia Leslie
St. Petersburg, Russia welcomes the G20/Patricia Leslie
patricialesli@gmail.com
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